Video of teen employee catching baby gets scores of viewers

ANCHORAGE — A 19-year-old worker at an Anchorage Home Depot caught a baby who was falling out of shopping cart — a rescue captured on store surveillance video that has been viewed online by thousands.

Christopher Strickland was waiting for a customer in the cashier area last week when he noticed the baby was loose in a car seat atop the shopping cart, the Anchorage Daily News reported. The arrangement looked precarious, Strickland said.

“I thought I’d keep an eye on it, in case something happened,” he said Wednesday.

The baby began to tip out of the car seat and Strickland darted toward the cart, catching the girl in midair. It was moments before the infant’s head would have hit the concrete floor.

Strickland handed the girl to her father. The man had been distracted at the cash register, and he thanked Strickland repeatedly.

The nine-second video is making the Internet rounds and has been viewed thousands of times on such sites as YouTube. No one is willing to say who put the footage on the Internet.

The clip ended up on the Facebook page of Strickland’s church. Then his brother, Dale, put it on YouTube on Sunday. It also has been viewed at other sites, including Liveleak, and has led to numerous interviews with reporters.

Atlanta-based Home Depot’s corporate headquarters is playing the role of media filter.

Strickland is shrugging off the attention, saying he didn’t have any feelings one way or another about it.

“I don’t care either way,” he said. It was just reflexes that help him catch the baby, he said.